Fox News sent reporter Griff Jenkins to the Bundy ranch in Nevada. But Jenkins’ “reporting” seems to amount to touring the property with a government-hating Bundy family friend and helping to promote a fact-free Bundy claim that the feds may have killed Bundy cows and thrown them in a mass grave. (H/T Barbara S.)
Last night, Jenkins gave a report on “what’s next for NV rancher,” as a banner on the screen read, on Fox’s On The Record show.
Jenkins didn’t bother to go into the pesky details of describing how the Bundys have refused for 20 years to pay grazing fees for their cattle (like all the other ranchers there pay) and are now refusing to remove their cows from federal land. The fact that the Bundys are ripping off the taxpayers didn’t seem to matter to Jenkins, either.
Instead, Jenkins announced that he went out on the range with a Bundy friend to “have a look” at “the damage to their property.”
There was also time for that friend, “a true cowboy,” Jenkins said admiringly, to do a little anti-government inflaming. “The government owns us instead of we owning the government. …We’ve got to get it back someway,” he told us.
For more “fair and balanced,” Jenkins aired an "exclusive" video he almost surely got from the Bundy family and made a point of suggesting that every single Bundy interpretation (or more) was true.
You’d think that Jenkins got a bonus for every time he suggested the federal government had robbed the Bundys (instead of the other way around) and for every fact he didn’t check before passing on the supposition to the viewers as credbile:
Now, Greta, we also obtained exclusive video of what appears to be a mass grave with dead cows in it. In the video here, you see Ryan Bundy who is overlooking what appears to be a 45-foot by 18… hole dug, presumably, by the feds with at least one dead cow in it. In the video, Ryan’s trying to figure out how many dead cows are in there. And that translates to real money. Cliven Bundy told me that one cow at market is about $2200 bucks. So you do the math. Ten is $22000. I asked Cliven if he thought there was more than 10. He said, “That’s a very low estimate.” Of course, in that sort of grave, there could be, presumably, up to 20, 30, or 40 more and they’re trying to figure out just what it’s cost them with this whole ordeal.
Apparently, looking for truth, instead of just reporting Bundy family supposition and giving it new cred, is not part of Jenkins’ job description.
Also not mentioned? How much Bundy has cost the rest of us with his law-breaking stunt.
Host Greta Van Susteren merely thanked Jenkins for his “report.”
Treason-supporting Fox Nation picked up the "report" and deliberately threw more fuel on the flames:
Watch the video below via Fox News.
As we already know, this was not a “land grab” but instead a situation where a local rancher was flaunting his defiance of US law for 20 years. He was politely asked to stop this behavior for years before they finally decided to take action. And once they did, every wingnut around decided this was some kind of attack on personal liberty.
It’s interesting the levels to which the wingnuts have been trying to push this story, including the falsehood that motivated this thread – the notion that the BHL would slaughter someone’s cattle and secretly bury them. It’s no wonder that Harry Reid has correctly labeled these people as domestic terrorists – I’m not certain how else you describe a group of armed vigilantes threatening BHL agents in the name of someone openly breaking the law for decades.
Jane is correct that we are a nation of laws, but she forgets that she doesn’t get to choose which ones we need to obey. She’s incorrect about laws about the border – the officers are not obligated under law to take certain actions, and they can be asked by higher-ups to prioritize their enforcement. That’s one thing. A rancher openly trespassing for 20 years is entirely different. Neither she nor a band of armed vigilantes can change those faccts.
Yeah, looks like nothing has changed with regards to his, um, reporting skills – he’s still willing to put aside any shred of actual journalistic credibility to pimp the propaganda. You go get ’em, Griff! Bwaaah!
(The video could be from Hannity’s people, including, he said, his brother-in-law I think it was, who are still down there filming away.)
Hannity’s top story this evening was the really breath-taking “fox News Alert” that Harry Reid’s son told some interviewer Bundy ought to be arrested and charged. This appears to be some kind of proof that Harry Reid is deeply involved in a conspiracy to get Bundy.
Oh, wait- We’re relying on their viewers to be smart enough to realize that. My bad.
That’s real investigative journalism.
